


Something About A Savior

by hopeforrain



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Canon-compliant through Blood of Olympus, Gardening, Hazel is dead (sorry), I haven't read Trials of Apollo, M/M, Nico needs a hug, Sad Nico, Slow Build, So probably not canon-compliant with that, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 04:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7919827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeforrain/pseuds/hopeforrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nearly two years after the giant war, Nico is struggling with his recent(ish) breakup and the death of his sister. One day, he finds someone who starts to help him move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something About A Savior

**Author's Note:**

> Almost three years ago, after the publication of House Of Hades, a friend of mine created a character to become Nico's love interest, because he totally deserved better than having a futile crush on a straight boy. My friend lost interest in this character after writing a few quick unpublished one-shots, but I held on to this idea. Now, finally, after Nico actually has a canon love interest, I have finished this story. I hope you enjoy it. It's been a long time coming.

Nico walked through the streets of New Rome, skirting around the large groups of people. He thought to himself for the thousandth time that he should have gotten an apartment with a yard, and then he wouldn’t have to make this walk every evening. Of course, he didn’t actually have to make this walk every evening, but he was trying to at least make an effort to do what Hazel had suggested.

“Stupid dead sister,” he muttered to himself. Technically, though, he could blame this on himself. She wouldn’t have made the suggestion if he hadn’t kept visiting her in Elysium.

Whoever’s fault this was, he was stuck with the project he had proposed. A garden. Nico shook his head as he thought about it. Had she honestly thought this was a good idea? Nico had a tendency to make everything around him die when he wasn’t happy. Which basically meant that the flower garden he had managed to start in a secluded corner of the city had turned into a small plot of dead plants. At least he killed the weeds, too.

He wasn’t sure why he kept coming. Nothing ever grew. He guessed it was just out of respect for Hazel’s wishes, but that wasn’t enough to keep him going much longer. He’d been coming here every day for three months, and everything had been dead for about that long. He decided that this was the last time he would take this walk to go pour water on some dry, brown plants stuck in the earth.

As he rounded the last corner, he muttered under his breath, “Hello, garden of the dead.” But what met his eyes as he looked up was not a garden of the dead. Life had miraculously been brought to this hidden bit of land. Color was all around, and in the center of it, crouching over a plot of red flowers, was a boy with dark hair.

Nico was about to duck back out of the garden. After all, if someone else had taken over the area, what was Nico supposed to do? He wasn’t going to fight for his right to kill plants.

Before he could leave, though, the boy stood up and looked directly at him. “Is this your garden?” he asked. When Nico didn’t respond, the boy kept talking. “I kind of hate to interfere, but I sensed so many dead plants over here that I started to worry there was some kind of plant disease spreading through the city, which obviously would have been catastrophic. So I had to come over and fix it.” He smiled, a little teasing, but also friendly.

Nico was still incredibly thrown by the fact that his garden had a person in it, and the only sentence he could actually put together was, “Who the hell are you?”

“Well that was nice,” the boy said sarcastically. “My name is Rafael. My mom is Ceres. I live in the city.” Rafael paused, then said, “This is normally where you introduce yourself to me. I mean, I already know who you are. Son of Pluto is a bit of a legend, but you could at least show some manners.”

“Son of Hades,” Nico said irritably. “My dad is Hades, not Pluto. And I’m Nico.”

At this point, Rafael seemed to figure out that Nico really didn’t want him there. “Well, Nico, it was nice to meet you, and I kind of like this place, so I might come back tomorrow at the same time, if you don’t mind. If you don’t want to see me, don’t show up, and I won’t come anymore. But I’d like to see you again.” And with that, he left the rows of flowers and went back into the city.

As soon as he left, the flowers around Nico began to wilt.

~ ~ ~

Nico didn’t linger in the garden that afternoon. He figured he should at least try to give the flowers a few hours of life, and the best way he could help them with that was to get away from them as quickly as possible. He felt a little bad about leaving right after Rafael left to give him space, but he really didn’t want to kill those flowers.

Instead, he headed back to his apartment, where he could instead kill himself with poorly prepared food. Nico wasn’t sure when or where most people learned how to cook, but he had clearly missed that life lesson, because everything he tried to make ended up being burnt or painfully bland.

He grumbled his way through dinner, turned on the TV for something to do, and eventually decided to go to bed early, figuring that his dreams would at least be more interesting, even if not more pleasant, than the reality show he had been watching.

~ ~ ~

Nico’s dreams were never what he would call pleasant. His best case scenario was boring, worst was flashbacks from Tartarus. Dreams about his ex-boyfriend, though, were a close second to drinking fire and almost dying.

 

_ “You know I’m going to burn really quickly out here, right?” Nico said. _

_ “Not if I cover your deathly pale ass with sunscreen.” Will smirked at him, and Nico blushed a bit. It was the middle of July, and they were headed towards the beach. They found a spot out of direct view of the camp and Will spread out a blanket in the sun. He grabbed a bottle of sunscreen from a bag he’d brought and raised an eyebrow at Nico. “Come here, my little ghost.” _

_ Will caught Nico’s arm and pulled him close into a kiss. Nico melted into it, wrapping his arms around Will’s neck. Will pulled away much too quickly, saying, “Sunscreen. We don’t want you burning and getting skin cancer.” _

_ “You’d fix me,” Nico said grinning cheekily. _

_ “Yes, but let’s save me the effort. I’ve never tried to heal cancer before, and it might be beyond me. And then you’d die, and where would that leave me?” He squirted some sunscreen onto his fingers and began to rub it into Nico’s cheeks. _

_ “You’d recover,” Nico said, closing his eyes. _

_ “I don’t know that I would.” Will’s hands traveled across his cheeks, up to his forehead, down his nose, over his ears, and settled at the back of his neck. “How could I ever recover from you?” Will brought him into a kiss again and Nico smiled against his lips. Never before had he felt this loved, this needed. They hadn’t even been together a year yet, but Will was transforming Nico. _

_ Will pulled away and sat down on the blanket, gesturing for Nico to join him. Nico pressed himself against Will’s side and Will wrapped an arm around his shoulders. The touching had come slowly. The first time Will had hugged Nico, Nico basically ran away and hid in his cabin for the rest of the day. But gradually, he grew more comfortable, and now it didn’t feel right to be with Will unless they were touching. _

_ They passed several hours together, talking, eating the food Will had bought off the Hermes kids, and just watching the ocean. Well, Will watched the ocean. Nico watched Will. The sunlight reflected off his hair, making him look like he was made of gold. Fitting, for a son of the sun god. _

_ The sun set, and still the two boys were out on the beach. They were laid out on their backs, hands tangled together. Will was pointing out constellations, and Nico alternated between staring at the stars and staring at his boyfriend. At one point when he was disregarding the sky, Will turned his head to the side and looked him in the eyes. Will smiled and said, “I love you, Nico.” Nico leaned a little closer and brought their lips together, hoping he could say with a kiss everything he couldn’t put into words. _

 

Nico woke slowly, trying to linger in the dream. The dream itself wasn’t the awful part. It was the waking up from it, realizing that those days on the beach that had been so frequent with Will were over. That Will had left.

As tears started to well up in Nico’s eyes, he sat up and slammed a fist into his knee in frustration. It had been close to a year, and he was sick of Will still having so much control over him. He was sick of being unable to let go of the past, but he couldn’t help it. Will had brought Nico out of isolation, had given him the freedom to feel truly happy for the first time in years. Losing him had sent Nico spiralling back to where he had been before, shutting people out, because you never knew when someone you trusted and loved would push you away.

Nico got out of bed, determined to do something to push away the sadness. He grabbed his sword, summoned an undead soldier, and started slashing mercilessly.

~ ~ ~

Nico left his apartment the next morning with a giant cup of coffee and drooping eyelids. He hadn’t really gone back to sleep after his dream, meaning he’d been up since about one in the morning. And unfortunately, he had to attempt to be semi-functional during the day, since work was a thing he had to do.

He’d spent his first few months in New Rome working at the morgue, since death was something he was good at. Eventually, though, he had been forced to acknowledge that there weren’t enough demigods dying to make working the morgue a full time job. Fortunately, he had stumbled across something else, thanks to a cranky old Italian man named Arnaldo.

Nico had been walking past Arnaldo’s barber shop, Arnaldo had tried to drag him into the shop to cut his ridiculously long hair, and Nico had refused to let him. Arnaldo proceeded to swear at him in Italian, and Nico swore right back at him. They had formed a sort of friendship after that. Three months later, Nico had a stable job as Arnaldo’s assistant. He wasn’t allowed to actually cut hair, but he did the behind the scenes work to keep the shop going.

Nico walked into the shop and called out a greeting. Arnaldo beamed at him and clapped him on the shoulder. Their relationship was not a deep one. It was mostly founded on a mutual dislike for customer service and love for anything Italian. Nico was grateful for the job and for someone who might notice if he died.

On this particular day, he was also grateful for the distraction from his awful night and the decision he would have to make regarding that evening.

By the time he got off work, he still hadn’t fully made up his mind on whether or not he was going back to the garden. The other kid had it handled, and he didn’t really want to see Nico. Or, if he did, he’d change his mind soon enough. Nico wasn’t exactly great company.

Nevertheless, Nico found himself walking the direction of his garden after work. It may just have been habit, but he found himself rounding the last corner before he even decided to be there.

Rafael was kneeling on the ground again, this time by a rosebush. He seemed to be singing softly to it, but he stopped as soon as he realized Nico was there. “Hey,” he said. “I wasn’t sure you were going to come.”

Nico merely shrugged in response. Rafael dropped his shoulders in frustration and sat back on his heels. “Look, if you’re going to be rude and sullen, I can leave. I wasn’t lying when I said I’d like to get to know you, but you’re going to have to put in a little effort. I’m not actually a mind reader. Which is probably a good thing, because that kind of power is terrifying.”

Nico smiled a bit, and said, “Being able to actually read people’s thoughts would be pretty uncomfortable, to be honest. Think of all the private things going on in people’s heads.”

“I wouldn’t want to be able to read people’s minds. I’m okay not knowing which people around me are thinking about sex.”

Nico smiled again. “Same.” There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Nico decided to suck it up and talk to this guy. “What were you doing with the roses earlier?”

“I was singing to them. It’s really not something I need to do. Technically, I only need to be here for about two minutes to make everything here look pretty, but I like it. I feel at peace when I’m with plants. They’re easier than people.”

Nico crossed over to join him by the roses. “I agree that people are hard, but plants aren’t any better.”

“Well, that’s just because you don’t know them,” Rafael said. “And you didn’t take care of them very well, so they don’t like you much.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual,” Nico said snarkily.

“See, that’s exactly the kind of thing that makes Rosie here not like you. She needs you to be kind and supportive of her, not rude and uncaring.”

Nico stared at Rafael for a moment. “It’s a bush.”

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have feelings.”

Nico decided that this conversation needed to end. “What song were you singing?”

“It’s not really a specific song. It’s just words and nonsense syllables, but it sounds calming. It’s as much for me as for the plants. Really, any time I spend gardening is as much for me as the plants. Demigod magic makes crouching in the dirt completely unnecessary for me.”

“Funny. For me, demigod magic makes weed killer and putting down sick pets completely unnecessary.”

Rafael stared at him in shock. “You haven’t actually killed…”

“I had a pet fish a year ago. I accidentally killed it when my sister died. Made an already bad day even worse.” Nico was kind of surprised at himself for revealing something so personal so casually, but Rafael seemed to brush it off. 

“That’s fine. I thought you’d done something really awful like kill a puppy.”

“No, puppies are good. It’s less complex lifeforms that I’m a danger to. Most mammals I would have to be trying to kill.”

“Okay, this conversation got a lot darker than I anticipated.” Nico cringed inwardly. It was already starting. This guy who had been really nice at first was already freaked out by him. And they’d only known each other for two days. But Rafael didn’t seem to be done talking. “What were you doing before you came here?”

Nico was a little surprised. No one had really cared what he did with his time since– Well, since Will. “I was at work for most of the day,” Nico answered.

“Agh, it’s like pulling teeth with you,” Rafael groaned when Nico didn’t say more. “What do you do?”

“I work at a barber shop.” Rafael snorted, eying Nico’s shoulder-length hair. “Shut up,” Nico said defensively. “I don’t have to be a customer to work there. And the guy who owns the place is aggressively Italian, so he kind of loves me.”

“I still think your presence in a barber shop would turn customers away.” Nico’s face fell a little at that statement. He was about to say something very Nico and depressing like,  _ My presence turns most people away from anywhere _ , but Rafael seemed to anticipate that and blocked the move before Nico could make it.

“Do you actually have a watering can anywhere in here?”

“Of course I have a watering can. I’m not a complete idiot. There’s even a pump around the corner so that the watering can can actually have water in it. I am a truly gifted gardener.”

“You want to go fill it up for me? Just so I can know that you actually know how to do that?” Nico gave a small smile and went to go grab his watering can.

As he did, he gave himself a little mental lecture.  _ A very nice (and really cute) guy is talking to you, Nico. Don’t fuck it up. Be nice back. You’re not being nice. _ He made up his mind to ask Rafael what he had done that day, because he was pretty sure that would be a good part of a normal human interaction.

He came back to the flower beds with a full can of water and enough nerve to speak to Rafael. “So, Rafi– Rafael–” Nico’s stumble over his words almost made him stop talking, but he had to keep going.  _ Be nice _ , he told himself again. “What do you do all day? Aside from helping sad, pathetic boys with their dead flowers?”

“You can call me Rafi,” Rafael said. “I don’t mind. And I work at a daycare, taking care of the kids of demigods. Most of them are pretty okay most of the time. The Mercury legacies can be a bit rough sometimes, though.”

“Learned too much thievery from their parents?”

“Just a tad. But it’s a good job. Better than my attempt to get a high school diploma by myself.”

“You’re doing that?” Nico was a bit in awe. He had managed to evade the whole state mandated education thing by being about eighty years old, and he had never had any interest in pursuing it on his own.

“Yeah, I started school when I was in the legion, but I mustered out before I graduated. Tried to go to school living at home with my dad for a bit, but that didn’t work too well. So now I’m doing online school and trying to get a diploma at some point in the near future.”

Nico didn’t really have anything to say to that, except that this guy was incredibly impressive. He thought that might be a little weird to say to a guy he just met, though, so he stayed quiet.

Rafael didn’t seem bothered by the silence, though. For the next twenty minutes or so, he chatted pleasantly while watering some plants. He told stories about his daycare kids for about twenty minutes, and then told Nico, “I have to go work on my math class now. You wanna meet me back here again tomorrow?”

Nico smiled, and said, “Yeah, that’d be great.”

~ ~ ~

Throughout the next couple weeks, they fell into a nice pattern. They met up in the garden when they were both done with work, and they talked while Rafael kept the flowers happy. On weekends, Rafael was busy with school, so Nico would go and spend a maximum of ten minutes in the garden to water the flowers. Now that the flowers weren’t all dead, the garden didn’t make him as stressed, meaning he was less likely to make them all die in two seconds. The negative emotions formerly associated with the garden were fading every day that went by, being replaced with cheerful conversation and fun memories (and a very cute boy).

Most of Nico’s evenings with Rafael kind of blended together, but occasionally something would stand out. One day, Nico walked into the garden to see Rafael with a circle of pink rosebuds on his head.

“Are you wearing a flower crown?” he asked, trying to suppress laughter.

“Yes, I am,” Rafael said, a little defiantly. “And I have been informed by a very reliable source that it looks very pretty.”

“Was that reliable source a four year old?”

“Yes,” Rafael said sheepishly. “I was putting flowers out in the classroom today, and one of the kids saw me, and she asked if I could make her a crown of flowers. So I did, and then she went to show all her friends, and pretty soon every kid in the daycare had a flower crown. Then they insisted that all the teachers have one, too. Hence the roses.”

“And you couldn’t take it off after class?”

“Hey, I like it! And I am confident enough in my masculinity to wear flowers on my head.” At this point, Nico had given in and was just laughing, and not even because it looked ridiculous. He laughed because Rafael was confident and ridiculous and incredible and happy, and it made Nico happy to be around him. And sometimes when you’re happy, you just have to laugh.

~ ~ ~

Nico had thought for a long time that he didn’t have a type. There had never seemed to be a common feature between the guys he liked. As he spent more time with Rafael, however, he realized he did have a type: guys who saved him. There was Percy, who had saved him from the monsters, and Will, who had saved him from loneliness. And now Rafael had shown up and was saving him from grief. And Nico was falling for him.

~ ~ ~

About three weeks after they met, Nico walked into the garden to see Rafael in front of an abnormally tall sunflower. As Nico watched, the sunflower began to shrink and then grow rapidly.

“Neat trick,” Nico said, and Rafael turned around.

“I learned it from my half-sister, Leila. We used to have races, see who could get to a certain point the fastest.”

“I didn’t know you had a half-sister,” Nico said. “Is she still in the legion?”

“She mustered out a few months after me.” Rafael’s tone was unusually tense, and Nico wanted to find out why.

“Do you see her much?”

“No, Leila’s not… She doesn’t really want to see me anymore.”

“Why not? What happened?” Nico realized after he asked that that maybe he had pushed this a little too hard.

“I don’t really want to talk about this. I’ve got homework. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And he turned and left.

~ ~ ~

Nico spent the rest of the night dreading the next evening, when Rafael would inevitably tell him that he didn’t want to be friends anymore. Nico had pushed him too far, had asked too much of him, and now he was going to leave. The thought of that made Nico sadder than he had thought it would. He was going to miss Rafael.

He didn’t sleep much that night.

~ ~ ~

Nico walked into the garden the next day bracing himself for the end. Instead, he was met with Rafael standing and looking towards him, saying “I’m sorry.”

Nico, being the eloquent person that he was, said nothing, so Rafael started talking.

“I had a best friend in the legion. Her name was Angelica. We came to camp at about the same time, and we were insanely close. She was like my sister. We fought in the battle at Mount Tam together, agreed that we would always watch each others backs, would always protect each other.” Rafael paused and took a long breath. “People in the legion don’t really talk about this much, but there were demigods on the other side in that battle. Kids who had deserted the legion, who didn’t like what it stood for and thought the Titans would treat them better. I had a half brother, Robbie, who was one of those kids.

“About halfway up the mountain, I’d turned my back to Angelica to take out a monster on the other side of me. The next thing I knew, she was screaming, and Robbie’s sword was in her stomach.” Rafael’s face was oddly blank, his voice seeming detached from what he was saying. “From the way she fell, it looked like she had thrown herself between his sword and my back.

“I didn’t even stop to think after I saw her. I turned on him and drove my sword into his body. I killed him. I killed my brother. And that’s why Leila and I don’t talk. She can’t forgive me for killing him.” Rafael looked down at the ground and said, “I’m sorry I snapped at you yesterday. I needed some time to get myself ready to talk about it.”

“Rafi, I’m sorry. That really sucks.” Nico wished he had something better to say, but he was unfortunately stuck in very base levels of comfort.

“You’re sorry? Why are you sorry? Everything that I just told you about was my fault. I wasn’t covering Angelica’s back and she died. I killed my brother. It’s my fault. I’ve been through hell the last couple years, but it’s my fault. It’s my dumb mistakes.” Rafael looked completely defeated.

Nico really wanted to be better at comforting. He wished Hazel were there to help. Or Bianca. Or literally anyone he knew, except maybe his dad. Unfortunately, though, Rafael was stuck with him.

“Rafi, it’s not your fault. You were in a battle. I’m sure Angelica doesn’t blame you, and I don’t think your brain was fully on board with what happened with Robbie. It was an instinct, you were scared for your friend, and you moved without thinking.”

“Thanks for trying to make me feel better, Nico, but it’s not really going to work. I just need to sleep it off. I’ll be more myself tomorrow. I just can’t think about this very much, or guilt starts to occupy my every waking moment.” He gave a wry smile. “I’m not really up for gardening right now. The flowers can tell that I’m sad, and it’ll make them sad, too. I’m going to head home. You should probably clear out, too,” he said, looking at the ground near them, where the flowers were starting to wilt. “I’m stressing you out. Come on, let’s go.”

As they walked out of the garden together, Nico wondered if this time, maybe he wasn’t the only one who needed saving.

~ ~ ~

Nico and Rafael parted ways shortly after leaving the garden. They lived on opposite sides of the city, so Nico got plenty of time on his way home to think about what Rafael had told him. He had said that Nico couldn’t make him feel better, but Nico thought he had an idea for how to help him feel less guilty about his past. He took a trip to the Underworld that night to do some research on a couple spirits, and he went to bed knowing that he at least had an idea to propose to Rafael.

~ ~ ~

In the garden the next day, Nico brought up his idea.

“I could take you to see her.”

Rafael looked up from the weeds he was pulling out, a little confused. “Take me where?”

“To the Underworld. To see Angelica. I could take you there.”

Rafael frowned. “But why would you do that for me? I’m fine, and that’s got to be a lot of work for you.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “You’re not fine. And I’d do this for you because I like you, you’re helping me, and I think that talking to her could help you feel less guilty. I’m pretty sure she could give you a different story of what happened.”

“Do you take all of your friends to the Underworld to see their dead loved ones?”

“No, I don’t,” Nico said, remembering a time when Will had asked to go see his grandpa, who had died when he was really young. Nico’s refusal had prompted a fight that he didn’t like thinking about. “I don’t take people to the Underworld when I think it’s just them trying to relive their past. But I think it could help you move forward.”

Rafael hesitated before asking, “Could you take me to my brother too?”

Nico shook his head. “I did some looking around last night, and I found out that he’s in Asphodel. He won’t remember anything about his old life, and even if he did, I don’t think seeing him would be good for you. Angelica’s in Elysium, though. You can talk to her just fine.”

Rafael paused for a moment, then said, “Can I think about it for a bit? I’m just not sure…”

“Of course,” Nico said quickly. “Just let me know if you want me to take you.”

They spent the next twenty minutes in relative quiet, Rafael only speaking when giving Nico an instruction. Then, he said softly, “I want to go.”

“Okay,” Nico replied. “When?”

“Is now okay? I just don’t want to overthink it.”

“Okay, there’s an entrance I can use just outside of camp. Well, it’s more like a crack in the wall of the Underworld, but it works. It’ll take us into Asphodel, and then we can cross into Elysium.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

~ ~ ~

The walk through San Francisco was very quiet. Rafael seemed full of nervous energy, and Nico was actively trying to avoid thinking about the last time he brought a guy to the Underworld.  _ This isn’t the same _ , he told himself.  _ Last time I was getting Percy to do something really stupid, and I voluntarily took him to my dad. Of course he was going to get in trouble and low-key hate me for a bit. _ He decided this time was going to be better. It was just a quick chat with a friend, and then they’d get out.

After about fifteen minutes, Nico turned onto a non-descript alley. When he had told Rafael that the entrance was like a crack in the wall, he was actually being very literal. At the end of the alley was a concrete wall, and when Nico put his hand on it, a narrow dark opening appeared.

“Where is this even coming from?” Rafael asked. 

“It’s just a maintenance oversight. Sometime cracks in security open up, and creatures of the Underworld can get through them. Like me.” He gave Rafael a cheesy grin entered through the wall, gesturing for Rafael to follow him.

 

Nico was pretty sure he’d never get over the impressive sight of the Fields of Asphodel. The sheer quantity of souls always left him in awe a little bit. He looked behind him and could see that Rafael was feeling that same awe. But they didn’t have time to stop and stare. “Come on,” Nico said, boldly grabbing Rafael’s hand and guiding him around the edge of Asphodel. “Stay close to me. It would be pretty bad if I lost you in here.”

They walked past the crowds of listless spirits towards Elysium. Nico had to put a few guards to sleep on the way, because, although he was allowed to wander the Underworld, he wasn’t really allowed to bring guests. However, they made it into Elysium very easily.

Once they were in, Nico turned to Rafael and asked, “So, where do you think she would be? What did she like to do when she was alive?”

“I’m not sure where she would be,” he replied. “She like being outside, listening to music–” Rafael stopped talking abruptly. “She’s right there,” he said after a moment, staring at a dark skinned girl with very short hair who was sitting by a lake with a few other spirits who looked like they had died in their late teens.

“Do you want me to give you some space?” Nico asked. “I can’t go too far, but I can give you a minute together.”

“That would be good,” Rafael said, and he turned to go towards his friend.

Nico was about to start wondering what he was going to do for the next five or ten minutes, when he heard a voice yelling “Nico di Angelo!”

He spun around to see a girl with curly golden-brown hair marching towards him. “Hazel!” he exclaimed.   
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “I told you not to come visit me anymore. I told you that you need to hang out with alive people more!”

“I know, Hazel, and I have been. That’s actually why I’m here.”

“You came to the Underworld to hang out with alive people? That’s a really stupid plan, no offence.”

“I’m not coming here to hang out with living people. I made a –” Nico hesitated, unsure what to call Rafael. “I made a friend at Camp Jupiter, and I brought him here so he could make peace with a dead friend.”

“That’s really stupid, Nico. Living people aren’t meant to be down here.” Hazel looked fairly concerned for him.

“Yeah, I know. But he’s so upset, and she died almost two years ago. He needs to move on.”

Hazel looked at him thoughtfully. “What about you? Are you moving on?”

Nico shifted his feet uncomfortably. “I’m trying. I miss you a lot, but I’m trying to talk to other people. And my friend who’s here has been helping me with the garden. The whole “create life not death” thing. He’s helping with that.”

“Nico,” Hazel said, looking directly into his eyes. “What about Will?”  
“What can I say, Hazel? He hurt me really badly. I can’t just get over that.”

“Are you trying?”

“Yeah, a little bit,” Nico said. “The guy I’m here with, he’s been a really great friend the last few weeks, and I think there might be a little something more there,” he said. “At least on my end. I don’t know if he likes me at all.”

“He trusted you enough to follow you here,” Hazel said. “That’s something.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Nico said, looking down at the ground.

“You should talk to him.”

Nico looked up at Hazel in panic. “No! What if it messes everything up?”

“What if it doesn’t?” Nico didn’t have an answer to that, so Hazel kept going. “You’ve always been bad at opening up to people, Nico, but I think if you worked on that, you could be a lot happier. It you learned to just tell people how you were feeling, you would be a lot less alone.”

She looked like she was about to say more, but instead she abruptly looked up. “Dad knows you’re here.”

Nico was puzzled. “So?”

“Dad also knows you brought a friend here. You didn’t ask him first?”

“Well, he would have said no!”

“That’s true. But you really need to leave now.”

Nico turned to go, and then looked back at Hazel. “Can I come back and see you?”

“If you keep working on interacting with living people. Now go! Before Dad actually does something about how upset he is!”

Nico nodded and ran to Rafael and Angelica. “Say your goodbyes now and quickly. My dad just found out I brought a mortal to the Underworld again.”

“Again?” Rafael asked.

“Yeah, last time, my friend got thrown in the dungeon. But I can guarantee that won’t happen to you if we leave in about five seconds.”

Rafael turned to Angelica. “Well, I’ll see you again someday.”

“In a really long time. You’ve got a long life full of cute boys ahead of you.”

Nico would have loved to stop and have a conversation about the cute boys comment, but instead he grabbed Rafael’s arm and said, “Okay, time to go.” He dragged Rafael towards the Fields of Asphodel, saying, “There’s a door just over there. We should be able to get out fine.”

They were almost at the exit when a great booming voice echoed across the cavern. “NICO!”

“That’s Dad. Run,” Nico said, yanking Rafael through the door into the mortal world.

~ ~ ~

Once they were through to the other side, they walked in quiet for a few minutes. Rafael broke the silence, saying, “So, that was your dad?”

“He’s not usually that loud,” Nico replied. “I just really wasn’t supposed to take you down there, and he’s a little upset.”

“A little?” Rafael asked skeptically.

“Yeah, a little. He could have zapped us back to his palace or killed you right then and there. He was only a little mad. Yelling isn’t that bad.”

“Well, thanks for taking me,” Rafael said. “I didn’t want to get you in trouble with your dad, but I’m really glad I got to go talk to Annie.”

“It’s no problem,” Nico said. Then, before he lost his nerve, he asked, “So, what did your friend mean when she was talking about your ‘life full of cute boys’?”

Rafael started noticeably avoiding eye contact, staring at the sky, the ground, anywhere but at Nico. “Oh, well, it’s probably just… She was just saying that I’m, uh, you know, that I’m–”

“Gay?” Rafael’s stammering was painful, and Nico had to cut it off. “It’s okay, you know. I am, too.”

Rafael looked mostly relieved at that statement, but a little tension remained in his body. “Annie was always a little over-interested in my love life,” he said. “She was always telling me to find a cute boy to date, trying to set me up with guys. I don’t know why she cared, but I guess she still does.”

“And did you ever? You know, find a cute boy to date?”

“No,” Rafael said after a moment’s pause.

“I did,” Nico responded, making a decision to do what Hazel had told him and open up a bit. Rafael looked over at him in surprise, and Nico kept talking. “His name was Will. We dated for about a year. It ended poorly.”

“How poorly?”

Nico gave a sarcastic chuckle. “Very. He cheated on me and then decided to tell me he wanted to be with the other guy. I made a scene by begging him not to leave me in front of basically the entire camp, and he walked away. And I went down to the Underworld to avoid my humiliation. I haven’t seen him since.”

“Ouch,” Rafael grimaced. After a minute, he added, “I’m sorry he cheated on you. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Yeah, well, it happened. Whatever. He didn’t love me as much as I thought he did.”

When they got to New Rome, Nico decided to have one more moment of not shutting himself off. “I’m going to go take a shower and then order a pizza. Do you want to come over to my place in about an hour for food?”

Rafael responded quickly, “Sure, see you then.”

They parted ways, and Nico hurried home to make his apartment presentable and find food that someone other than him would eat. He considered bringing up a dozen zombies to help him clean, but decided that might be a bit of an abuse of his power, and given his afternoon, his dad might not be too thrilled. So instead, he threw all of his crap in his bedroom, shut the door, and called it good. An hour later, he was waiting nervously in the kitchen with a box of pizza. He was suddenly questioning why he had actually invited Rafael over. What was he even looking for? Their relationship had been perfectly fine beforehand, and spending an evening together with no flowers acting as a buffer offered many opportunities to screw things up. Fortunately, though, Rafael knocked on the door before he could overthink it too much.

Nico opened the door to see Rafael standing there holding a bunch of sunflowers. “It didn’t feel right to hang out with you without flowers around. Plus I figured you didn’t have any here, since you tend to, you know…”

“Kill things? Yeah. I don’t usually keep flowers. But thanks,” Nico said, and grabbed the flowers. “I’ll just put these in a… vase? I don’t think I have one of those.”

“What kind of person doesn’t own a vase?”

“Um, a sixteen year old guy who can’t keep flowers without killing them? Come on. I’ll just set these on the counter. We’ll eat now and figure it out later.”

When they had settled down at the table with pizza and soda, Nico decided to maybe talk a little. “So, first trip to the Underworld. What did you think?”

“Honestly? I wasn’t a fan. A little too dark and dead. Not great for growing things.”

“You’d be surprised. You should see my step-mom’s gardens. They’re actually pretty spectacular.” Nico took another bite of pizza, and then had a realization. “She’s technically your sister, right?”

Rafael choked on his pizza a bit. “Let’s not think about what that makes us. Too weird. And creepy.”

“Why’s that creepy?” Nico knew why  _ he _ thought it was creepy, but he wanted to know if Rafael was on the same train of thought. Unfortunately, though, he didn’t get to find out.

“So, what were you up to while I was talking with Annie?”

“Oh, my sister Hazel found me. We talked for a bit. She’s doing well. I mean, obviously she’s doing well, she’s in Elysium, but still. It was good. What did your friend talk to you about?”

“I apologized for letting her die. She looked like she wanted to slap me in the face for that, but she just lectured me about how that totally wasn’t my fault and she made the choice to sacrifice herself. It’s not exactly happy, but I’m glad to know she doesn’t blame me.” Rafael looked like he was about to say more, but he took a giant bite of pizza instead. When he had finished swallowing, he asked Nico, “What did you and your sister talk about?”

“She lectured me about opening up to people. Said that I should talk more about how I feel.”

“That’s it?” Rafael said after a stupidly long pause. “That’s all you're going to tell me? That she said you should talk about your feelings?”

“Yes,” Nico said, a bit loftily.

“I think this is where you should talk about your feelings.”

“I’m feeling very attacked right now. I think you should let me open up in my own time.”

“That’s stupid,” Rafael said, tossing a crumpled napkin at Nico.

Nico thought for a moment, then said, “Talking about feelings is terrifying. What if something I say scares you away?”

“I’m not scared of you, Nico.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re like a beat-up puppy,” Rafael said with a smile. “A lot of awful things have happened to you, and it makes you not trust people, but if someone can break through that barrier you have up, you’re just happy to be around them.”

“I’m not like that around everyone.”  _ It’s just you _ , Nico added to himself.

They sat in tense silence for a moment, and then Nico said, “I want to tell you something, and I want you to know that this doesn’t need to change anything about our friendship, or whatever it is.” Nico started cursing himself mentally.  _ Why did you say that? Why would you do that? Quick, come up with something to say that’s not a big deal! _ But he had never been great at thinking on the fly, and before he knew it, Rafael was looking at him with an unreadable expression and nodding for him to continue. “I just… I think I like you, but in a not-friend way? I mean, I like you in a friend way, too, and if that’s what you want to be than I am totally okay with being friends because I definitely like you as a friend but also maybe in a different way, but–” Nico broke off from his rambling to see Rafael grinning at him. “Are you laughing at me?”

“Never, never laughing at you,” Rafael said, definitely laughing. “Okay, maybe I’m laughing at you a little, but I’ve just never heard anyone ramble so long about something so stupid.” Nico could feel anxiety and regret building up inside him. Rafael thought he was stupid. This was the end. His emotions apparently showed on his face, because Rafael hurriedly added, “No, you’re not stupid, it’s just kind of stupid to say we should just be friends when you just told me you maybe like me and I definitely like you.”

Nico could feel his heart starting to beat faster, but he couldn’t quite tell if it was from anxiety or excitement. “You won’t like me when you get to know me better. I’m not good. People don’t like me.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? I mean, you can’t be as not good as me. I killed a guy.”

Nico smiled a little bit. Rafael reached over to touch his hand and said, “Let’s give this a shot, okay? I think we could work.”

Nico turned his hand to lace his fingers through Rafael’s. “Sure, let’s give it a shot.”

~ ~ ~

They were both a little broken, both a little unable to handle their own messy pasts by themselves. But they figured, maybe they didn’t have to handle everything by themselves. Maybe, just maybe, they could save each other from their hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> If you comment something nice on this fic it will basically make my life.


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